Blogging from bed.

Alright so I have been MIA for a while – don’t be mad! I’m back!!

The past week or so has just flown by. I’d like to say how happy I am that today is Labor Day and that I have spent the majority of the past 24 hours in bed or on the couch watching TV. So, I did some school work, grocery shopping, and laundry here and there but I have mostly been relaxing – I don’t know when the last time I just relaxed was. I have been going, going, going since I moved here that I haven’t even really had a weekend here.

This weekend was great, but let me back up first… the week was pretty good. Like I said, it went by really fast. One of my friends from work came down from Chicago and several of us went out on Tuesday night to the Rusty Rudder, which is a restaurant/bar on the lake. Definitely a fun atmosphere, but it has an amazing view. The food was pretty good, and the drinks were deliciously cheap. See photos below:

The rest of the week was pretty basic: work, workout, cook, sleep, repeat.

Check out one of my latest creations – a veggie “tostada.” I couldn’t figure out a better name for it. Basically its a tortilla with fat free refried beans, sauteed peppers and onions, a light sprinkling of cheese, spinach, salsa, and sour cream. This is my new favorite (easy) meal. It basically has no prep involved.

Ok so life was pretty routine until Friday! My friend Keena from DC arrived for the weekend and brought her friend Jacci from college with her. It was so great to see Keena – we go all the way back to high school and she is a very special friend to me. It meant a lot that she came here to spend her long weekend in Charlotte.

Friday night Keena and Jacci went out; I opted to stay in and go to bed early because I knew we had a big Saturday ahead of us. Also it was raining and gross out. Woke up pretty early on Saturday (they did too – yay for working..) Keena and I got Subway breakfast (read my love for Subway breakfast here). We then went to the pool – unfortunately it was shady and kind of cool, but it was a great opportunity to use the hot tub and we had the pool all to ourselves. My friend Kristen who lives here was able to join us. The pool was short lived. We decided to go get ready for the tailgate extravaganza. Tailgating is definitely the most fun part about a football game – ECU was playing USC at Panther Stadium. Gave me an excuse to pull out my purple dress and celebrate.

Disclaimer: for some reason I was not camera happy on Saturday and I unfortunately do not have any pictures.

We first went to Tavern on the Tracks where we all got the infamous black bean burger as well as chips and salsa. So delicious. I have realized I just need to split that burger with people – half is the perfect amount to keep you full for a long time. So after our meal, we went next door (literally) to The Gin Mill. I love living in close proximity to delicious food and fun bars. They were having a tailgate party and yes, I was forced to play cornhole. I didn’t fail miserably, but let me again reiterate, any games involving balls/bags/bats/throwing are not my forte. Definitely had fun though. Then we ventured out to the actual tailgate and wandered around for a while. Came back to my apartment and we had a tough decision to make: stay in or go back out? Well for some reason we decided going back out was a good idea (and it was so fun… I am glad we did). We were going to go back to the Gin Mill but ended up at RiRa uptown. Super fun bar, nice rooftop porch. Since we had been out and about alllll day, we decided to call it an early evening and left there around midnight.

Yesterday we ordered pizza for breakfast (nom nom) and veg’ed out basically all day. It was wonderful. Jacci hit the road to head back to Raleigh and Keena and I got in bed to watch lifetime movies and other bad TV. It was exactly what I needed!!! I really enjoyed our girl time together this weekend. Also, Keena and I have a mutual love for food. Good food. So we decided to cook!

This recipe from Gina’s Skinny Taste was absolutely delicious: Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini and Mozzarella. If you haven’t been to this blog yet, go there now! She has such great and healthy recipes… granted I ate more than one serving of this one 😉 but, it was still good. Keena fixed us some tomato and mushrooms sauteed in garlic butter and I tossed up my “almost-famous” Spinach and Raspberry Walnut salad.

Now I am laying in bed, watching bad TV and blogging. I put in my dues of cleaning, housework, and schoolwork today so I am going to take the rest of my day off to relax and listen to the storms. Thank goodness this week is a short week. Let’s hope it flies by and I can enjoy another relaxing weekend.

Tomorrow I get my farmshare – expect more recipes this week… every Tuesday is like Christmas when I get that thing!!!